Articles By
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COAL POWER Direct—October 9, 2019
<!doctype html> October 9, 2019 NETL: Coal Chemical Looping Combustion Closer to Commercialization Chemical looping combustion (CLC), an advanced coal power technology that could markedly simplify carbon capture at power plants, has moved significantly closer to commercialization, owing to a breakthrough in oxygen… Read More A New Technology for Bottom Ash Conversion Emerges New environmental […]
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NewsProtecting DEF from Extreme Cold Is Important
According to the Farmer’s Almanac, the winter of 2019–2020 will be filled with bitterly cold weather in the eastern parts of the Rockies and east to the Appalachians. The Northeast should also experience very cold temperatures. For municipalities, public utilities, landscapers, and others that are involved in outdoor work and snow removal, there is always […]
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NuclearLast Major Module Received at Vogtle Nuclear Site
The final major module needed to construct Vogtle Units 3 and 4—the only new commercial nuclear power units currently under construction in the U.S.—has arrived at the site near Waynesboro, Georgia. That means all 1,485 major modules have been manufactured and safely delivered to the project. Georgia Power announced the milestone in a press release […]
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NuclearSmall Modular Reactors Gain Momentum in Europe
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and NuScale Power, two leading companies in the race to build small modular reactors (SMRs) for power generation, have recently announced deals that could result to new plants being constructed in Europe. Feasibility Studies in Estonia GEH on Oct. 3 said it had signed an agreement with Fermi Energia OÜ, […]
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CybersecurityTaking Charge of Cybersecurity in the Energy Industry
Delivering energy has centered on the fundamental tenant of being reliably available. As energy providers strive to maintain that availability, they all too often push security to the backburner. Many unsafe practices have fallen into place for the sake of speed and efficiency, including the use of default and shared passwords, open access, and little […]
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TechnologyUsing Data to Improve Power Plant Operations [PODCAST]
Power plants have an abundance of data. Temperatures, pressures, flows, and various other parameters are all monitored constantly to ensure plants are operating properly. However, a lot of data is not used to its fullest extent. With the right tools, data can be more-thoroughly analyzed and findings can be acted upon to improve efficiency and […]
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NuclearNuclear Performance Improves, but More Reactors Needed
“The world’s nuclear plants continue to perform excellently,” Agneta Rising, director general of the World Nuclear Association, wrote in the preface to the recently released World Nuclear Performance Report 2019. Yet, if the nuclear industry is to reach its “Harmony” goal, which is for nuclear generation to supply 25% of the world’s electricity before 2050, […]
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RENEWABLE POWER Direct—September 25, 2019
September 25, 2019 PV Peaker Plant a Model for Solar-Plus-Storage Projects Pairing solar energy resources with batteries is a winning solution. It allows utilities to store excess power when the sun is shining but demand is low, and use it when the sun sets but demand is high. One Read More Successful Dam Stabilization Project […]
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RenewablesClean Tech Leaders Honored at North America Smart Energy Week
Winners of The Cleanie Awards—the only comprehensive awards program focused exclusively on the clean energy industry—were unveiled on Sept. 24 during North America Smart Energy Week in Salt Lake City, Utah. “The Cleanie Awards honors companies and individuals at the forefront of innovation for the clean technology and renewables industries,” said Elyssa Haynes, program director for […]
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GAS POWER Direct—September 18, 2019
September 18, 2019 IHS: Natural Gas Prices Will Fall Below $2/MMBtu in 2020 Average natural gas prices at Henry Hub in 2020 could fall to below $2/MMBtu —a level “not seen in decades”—owing to a persistent oversupply, a new report from information and… Read More New York City to Get Eight Floating Aeroderivative Gas Turbines […]
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SolarCommunity Solar Benefits Cooperatives and Customers
For some utilities, community solar is a way to offer consumers access to clean energy without requiring investment in rooftop solar. For others, it presents a means of strategically placing solar resources in the most beneficial locations. Meanwhile, many utilities view it as an opportunity to learn how best to integrate distributed energy resources (DERs). […]
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T&D
What Can You Do with a Superconductor? A Lot! [PODCAST]
What is a superconductor? One definition says, “a material that can conduct electricity or transport electrons from one atom to another with no resistance.” “At the base physics level, what a superconductor does is it moves a lot more power per unit volume or per unit weight, so you have a very high energy-dense material […]
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COAL POWER Direct—September 11, 2019
September 11, 2019 PG&E’s Reorganization Plan—Cap Wildfire Liabilities at $18 Billion Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) wants to cap its liabilities from damages caused by California wildfires at about $18 billion, according to the reorganization plan filed by the bankrupt utility… Read More Combustion Optimization to Improve Heat Rate and Lower NOx Power plant operators […]
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Gas
Engineering a World-Class Gas Turbine [PODCAST]
GE introduced the F-class gas turbine to the power industry nearly 30 years ago. Since that time, more than 1,500 F-class machines have operated for more than 54 million hours. With available outputs ranging from 51 MW for a GE 6F.01 simple cycle unit to more than 1,000 MW for a 3×1 7F.05-based combined cycle […]
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Distributed Energy
Large Public Power Systems Are Evolving [PODCAST]
The power grid is changing across the U.S. More distributed energy resources are being added every day. That brings challenges for power utilities, but also opportunities. John Di Stasio, president of the Large Public Power Council (LPPC), which represents 27 of the largest locally governed and operated not-for-profit electric systems in the U.S., was a […]
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O&MHope for the Blue Sky, Plan for the Storm
Organizations operating within a mission-critical environment must adopt appropriate technology to mitigate potentially life-threatening problems. As we acknowledge National Preparedness Month this September, we need to remember what is important to electric power customers. They expect to be kept safe, to be heard, and to receive realistic estimated restoration times—especially when a power line is […]
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Legal & RegulatoryFERC’s LaFleur Decries Partisanship and Politicization
“I hate to see things going out along party lines,” Cheryl LaFleur, outgoing commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), told POWER during an exclusive interview. “During my 35 years of watching FERC, that has not been the pattern.” During the early years of the Obama administration, “we didn’t think of ourselves as [partisan],” […]
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RENEWABLE POWER Direct—August 21, 2019
August 21, 2019 Group Will Build ‘First of its Kind’ Pumped-Storage Project in Dubai The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has awarded a Dh1.437 billion ($391 million) construction contract for a 250-MW hydropower project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a project considered… Read More Biomass Power: Stalled in the Market, Stalled in Washington […]
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NuclearSouthern Nuclear Adds New Power Plant Simulators
GSE Systems said it has delivered and commissioned three additional full-scope simulators for Southern Nuclear’s new Operations Training Centers. The simulators are for the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant, and the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant. Simulators provide efficient hands-on learning for power plant operators. While power plants of […]
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GasState Agencies Object to Xcel Energy, Southern Power Deal
Xcel Energy’s effort to purchase a 760-MW natural gas combined cycle facility in Mankato, Minnesota, from Southern Power, a wholesale energy provider and subsidiary of Southern Company, is meeting resistance from two state agencies. The Minnesota Department of Commerce (DOC) and the Minnesota Office of the Attorney General (OAG) recommended the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission […]
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GAS POWER Direct—August 14, 2019
August 14, 2019 Automated Plant Startups Reduce Fixed and Fuel-Related Costs State-of-the-art automation systems are common at power plants these days. Still, many plants start up units in a very manual way. When startups were rare, the implications were minimal, but as units cycle… Read More PG&E Asks Bankruptcy Judge to Back Restructured Power Deals […]
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GasNext-Generation HRSGs Start Fast and Reduce Emissions
Today’s heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) are suffering reliability problems, mainly because they’re being operated in the cycling mode instead of the baseload mode for which they were designed. The good news is HRSG suppliers are adapting to the market demands and are designing the next generation of HRSGs to have cycling-friendly—also called fast-start—features. One […]
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COAL POWER Direct—August 7, 2019
August 7, 2019 Healy 2: The Story of a Coal Unit's Remarkable Resiliency Coal is the reason that Healy, Alaska, exists. To ensure low-cost power and reliability to interior Alaska—a remote place that is bereft of gas and has little sun—and sustain regional employment, Golden Read More Sponsored Content See $500,000 in Savings With a […]
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Solar
How Nevada Is Leading the Renewable Energy and Battery Storage Charge [PODCAST]
Renewable energy and battery storage are hot topics in the U.S. today. Lawmakers throughout the country debated various new energy policies during the 2019 legislative session. Nevada is among the states leading the way forward. Several new laws were passed in the state that will affect power companies and consumers for years to come. Curt […]
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POWERnews—August 1, 2019
August 1, 2019 Vogtle Nuclear Expansion Unlikely to Meet Aggressive Schedule Deadline A team that reviewed Southern Nuclear Company's (SNC’s) April 2019 Vogtle Units 3 and 4 Re-baseline of Forecast Schedule and Cost said it believes the working schedule predicated on commercial… Read More The POWER Interview: What Drove the Gas Turbine Technology Leap at […]
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NuclearVogtle Nuclear Expansion Unlikely to Meet Aggressive Schedule Deadline
A team that reviewed Southern Nuclear Company’s (SNC’s) April 2019 Vogtle Units 3 and 4 Re-baseline of Forecast Schedule and Cost said it believes the working schedule predicated on commercial operation dates of May 23, 2021, and May 23, 2022, for the respective units, is unachievable. Furthermore, the reviewers said the regulatory-approved schedule from the […]
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Nuclear
Positive Developments for Small Modular Reactors
NuScale Power, Rolls-Royce, and China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC)—three companies working on different small modular reactor (SMR) technology—recently announced positive developments for their respective designs. NRC Makes Progress on NuScale Design Review Portland, Oregon-based NuScale said on July 22 that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed the second and third phases of its SMR […]
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Nuclear
Worried About Climate Change? Save Nuclear Plants [PODCAST]
Nuclear power advocates suggest there are many benefits associated with nuclear energy. They point to high-paying jobs; billions of dollars in economic activity for plant-hosting communities; and secure, reliable, baseload electricity. But the most-important benefit of nuclear power may be that it emits no greenhouse gases, and therefore does not contribute to climate change. According […]
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POWERnews—July 25, 2019
July 25, 2019 New York Enacts 100% Clean Energy Law, Secures 1.7 GW of Offshore Wind New York on July 18 enacted the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), law that requires the state to produce 100% of its power from renewables and nuclear by… Read More Sponsored Content Timken Power Systems: The Complete […]
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RENEWABLE POWER Direct—July 24, 2019
July 24, 2019 New York Enacts 100% Clean Energy Law, Secures 1.7 GW of Offshore Wind New York enacted the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), a law that requires the state to produce 100% of its power from renewables and nuclear by… Read More A Fine Couple They Are (Wind and Solar Power) […]